Real Time host Bill Maher is no stranger to controversy, especially when the University of California at Berkeley is involved. In 2014, he went back and forth with student groups after the latter voted to disinvite the talk show host from speaking at the school’s fall commencement speaker. Almost three years later, Maher tore into the university yet again when the panel broached the cancellation of Breitbart troll Milo Yiannopoulos’ speech following violent protests by students and visitors on the campus. The comedian even extended an invitation to the controversial figure, hoping he’d appear on Real Time in the near future.

Maher’s wish is about to come true, as Real Timeannounced Yiannopoulos will feature as the top-of-show guest on the upcoming Friday, February 17th episode. According to Deadline, the man Maher dubbed a “provocateur” will appear alongside panelists Leah Remini, Republican and former congressman Jack Kingston, The Intercept founding editor Jeremy Scahill, and former Nightly Show host Larry Wilmore. In other words, the next edition of Real Time is going to be really, really good… or present viewers with one of the worst, most dumpster fire-y episodes of television to date.

“I guess we’ll be putting on extra security,” Maher joked on a previous episode when mentioning Yiannopoulos’ then-potential booking. “I’ve been a longtime critic of colleges shutting people up. Free speech should be something we own.” For all his free speech advocacy, however, Maher’s resolve will be tested come Friday when he and the fiercely protested author sit down to chat. “He’s a provocateur. He’s been thrown off Twitter,” Maher added. “That’s how bad he is.”

To be fair to provocateurs and banned Twitter users everywhere, however, Yiannopoulos’ case is far more complex than Maher’s prior descriptions suggest. After all, the Real Time guest is the same person who harassed Saturday Night Live‘s Leslie Jones with racist, sexist tweets, images and memes before Twitter ultimately kicked him off the platform. The harassment was so bad, especially since Yiannopoulos instructed his followers to do the same, that Jones left Twitter for a time.

I hope it’s the one-on-one because that will be more interesting. The panel this season has been a chaotic shouting match and Maher himself seems more unhinged than usual. I actually think he’s getting too high before the show.

He’s no different than Ann Coulter. People taking this guy’s nonsense seriously enhances his brand. Sometimes listening to someone say awful things reminds you that their are people out there who say awful things. Refusing to debate the guy, in what should be a massive gang bang, gives him validation he doesn’t deserve. I guarantee, if he had his druthers he’d be kicked off the show as quickly as possible.

Bill Maher and Milo don’t actually have that much difference between them. They’re both smug pricks who think they’re persecuted for having “dangerous ideas” rather than just being disliked because they’re assholes. They’re both virulently anti-Muslim. They’re both misogynists. And they both think complaining about a thing they don’t like is the same as having ideas to fix it.

I don’t agree with Milo, but his the way he approaches topics and the content of what he says doesn’t really seem any worse than what money trolls across the political spectrum do. They generate controversy for clicks and book sales. It seems that Milo’s real problem is being a traitor, a gay man who has broken with orthodoxy. If he was running around bashing on Christians instead of Muslims for their homophobia, or laying waste to police officers instead of feminists, he’d be celebrated.

None of this is an endorsement of what he’s said, I just do not see how he’s more dangerous than Ann Coulter or Michael Moore.

I don’t think Ann Coulter has ever promised to publicly name illegal immigrants in the hope that they will be harassed and attacked. Milo uses violent language like “purge” when talking about his enemies and then acts surprised when violence finds him.

Yes, in his speech at the University of New Mexico and on billboards that advertise his speeches, he asks people to “purge your local illegals.” Of course, he’s not an idiot, so he says to do this by calling ICE. But that’s intentionally inflammatory language meant to inspire images of violence. It’s his whole deal.

He usually gets ripped to shreds on appearances like this as he is just intelligent enough to realise he can get rich by talking nonsense to the lowest common denominator but not intelligent enough to defend things he doesnt really believe to someone going all in on him.